


Academy of Geminis

by TrixxKwamii



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Actor Lance (Voltron), Alien Character(s), Alternate Universe - Art School, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Anxiety Attacks, Aromantic Asexual Pidge | Katie Holt, Artist Keith (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Bows & Arrows, Canon-Typical Violence, Chef Hunk (Voltron), Dancer Lance (Voltron), Established Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Established Hunk/Shay (Voltron), F/F, F/M, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gay Adam (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Gay Shiro (Voltron), Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Grrrrr... screw it, Hunk (Voltron) Has Anxiety, I wanna tag more things but I don't wanna spoil people's superpowers, Ice Powers, Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Half-Siblings, Lesbian Allura (Voltron), Lesbian Romelle (Voltron), M/M, Minor Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Minor Allura/Romelle (Voltron), Minor Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Musician Allura (Voltron), Musician Pidge | Katie Holt, On Hiatus, Pansexual Hunk (Voltron), Photographer Shiro (Voltron), Roommates, Technopathy, Telekinesis, Teleportation, dancer romelle, it's kinda vague and only the very beginning but still be careful in chapter 4, werecat keith, writer Hunk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-19 02:54:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 12,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22004071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrixxKwamii/pseuds/TrixxKwamii
Summary: Altea Academy for the Arts. The best high school for anyone who wanted to go into a career in the arts. Their graduates include celebrities such as Allura, the pop princess, Takashi Shirogane, a famous photographer, and Romelle Cosmond, the prima ballerina of the Daibazaal City Ballet.And the dream school of four young teenagers: Keith Kogane, a popular artist online known only as KDraws; Katie "Pidge" Holt, a techie as well as a rock cover artist; Hunk Garrett, an author who also enjoys the culinary arts; and Lance McClain, who can't seem to decide between dance and theatre.Each of these four is hiding a secret. They all have superpowers.Or at least, it was a secret. Until they, along with some graduates of Altea, were called upon to protect the city from a group who wishes to do it harm.---Not finished, just on hiatus
Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Allura/Romelle (Voltron), Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 80





	1. It All Started With an Elevator

**Author's Note:**

> [Inspiration](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/635781672382763414/)
> 
> Also, heads up: I know I've used they/them for Pidge in the past, but this time I'm trying something new and using ze/zir. Partly bcz one of my friends is a grammar nazi and probs going to kill me if I do that one more time. And no, Lance, Hunk, and Keith aren't transphobic, they just don't know at this point in the story and I want things like that to be realistic.

Lance was practically vibrating as he stepped up to the elevator, followed by Hunk, his roommate and childhood best friend. Today had been the first day he'd ever woken up before his alarm, surprising both of them.

At least, it would have if they'd been going to a normal school. Normally, they'd be starting their first year at Arus High School back in Garrison, their small hometown. But instead, they'd both applied to their dream school, the Altea Academy for the Arts in Daibazaal City. And they'd both been accepted.

So Lance's abnormal excitedness for the new school year was understandable.

"I still can't believe we got in!" Lance exclaimed for the fifth time that day and what felt like the millionth time since getting their acceptance letters, " _And_ that we got the same homeroom!"

Hunk chuckled and nodded, guiding his friend into the elevator as the doors dinged open. They were followed by a girl and a boy.

The girl was very short, wore glasses, and had cropped hair. She was holding a cup of coffee tightly in her hands and had a guitar case slung over her shoulder. She clearly hadn't slept well the night before and had run into the tiny coffee shop in the lobby of the school. Looking closer, Hunk noticed she held a stack of loose sheet music between her elbow and her hip. So a music student, if the guitar case didn't make it obvious enough.

The boy was about Lance's height and had hair that hung down to his shoulders. _Who has a mullet anymore?_ Lance thought with a smirk on his face. He wore a leather jacket, fingerless gloves, and a tight-fitting red t-shirt. Lance blushed as he realized he was staring. The boy held a drawing tablet, two sketchbooks, and a pencil case. Visual art student then. A pair of Bluetooth headphones were over his ears, and if Lance listened hard enough in the silent elevator, he could hear something that sounded suspiciously like Panic! At the Disco.

These two must have been in their homeroom as well. Their homeroom was the only freshmen homeroom with a class on the fifth floor first hour, and neither of them moved to press another button after Lance hit the number five.

* * *

Pidge just barely held in a sigh as the iced coffee hit zir tongue. Ze hadn't slept nearly at all the night before, as ze'd stayed up late editing a recording of one of zir most recent covers to post on zir YouTube channel. It'd been a spur of the moment decision, but when ze'd noticed the coffee shop in the lobby, ze hadn't hesitated to stop in and grab a cup. Chocolate flavored, of course. Ze may be non-binary, but ze wasn't a heathen.

"I still can't believe we got in! _And_ that we got the same homeroom!" one of the three other people waiting for the elevator shouted. He was tall with tan skin and brown hair and wore a blue shirt. Ze couldn't figure out what his major was. His friend was even taller than him, with darker skin and hair, wearing lots of yellow, so that he looked like a literal ray of sunshine. He carried a journal, a laptop, and a pen, so Pidge figured he was probably a literary major or a visual art major. Sunshine boy chuckled and pulled him into the elevator with an arm around his shoulders.

Pidge made eye contact with the boy in the leather jacket behind their backs and they both rolled their eyes as they stepped on. Leather boy went and tucked himself in a corner and Loud boy pressed the '5' button before going to stand next to Sunshine boy in the middle of the elevator. Ze hovered off to the side and took another drink of zir coffee.

Just as the elevator doors were closing, a tall, ginger man in a blue dress shirt rushed the elevator, cramming a trapper-keeper between the doors. Loud boy's eyes widened and he pushed the 'open' button until the doors opened again. The man breathed a sigh of relief and stepped on board.

"Thank you, my boy," he said, grinning at Loud boy.

"Yeah... no problem," Loud boy stammered. He glanced at the other three in the elevator, clearly wondering if they knew who this man was. They all shrugged. Loud boy nodded slowly and went to stand next to his friend again as the door closed again and the elevator started to move.

The ginger man, who was clearly a teacher, studied them before nodding and setting his trapper-keeper on the ground. "So! You all must be my freshman class! I'm Professor Smythe, and I'll be your homeroom teacher. When you have Art History sophomore year, I'll be your teacher for that too. You all can call me Coran, however."

The four students eyed him and shared confused looks before nodding in unison.

"And I bet you're wondering why I've gathered you here today."

Pidge raised zir eyebrows and started to say, "Not really. We're all just on our way to class."

Ze only got out "Not-" before Coran slammed his fist into the emergency stop button and the elevator started plummeting to the basement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was originally going to be longer, but I liked the cliffhanger. So yeah. I'll try to update this weekly, and attempt to get 'The Truth Will Come Out' to a weekly schedule too.


	2. Our Protagonists do Introductions in a Creepy Hallway

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't wait a week to post again! 😂
> 
> Again: No, Keith, Lance, and Hunk are not transphobic, they just don't know. Nobody's commented on it, but I want to make sure nobody does.

When Keith agreed to follow in Shiro's footsteps and applied for Altea Academy, he had not been expecting to spend the first fifty seconds of his first official day at the school plummeting to the ground. Clearly, the only one in the elevator that _had_ planned for this was Coran. Everyone else had leaped to the walls of the elevator and were holding onto the railing for dear life, everything they'd been holding forgotten and lying on the floor. Keith winced as he saw his drawing tablet and headphones and the boy in yellow's laptop lying on the floor. He hoped neither of them broke.

And then there was Coran, standing in the middle of the elevator, casually rifling through his trapper-keeper.

All of a sudden, the elevator hit the basement floor, sending a jolt of pain through the four students' legs. They all let go of the railing and dropped to their knees. Keith crawled towards his drawing tablet and headphones. The boy in yellow hesitantly picked up his laptop, and the girl scrambled towards her guitar case and to pull her sheet music out of the way of her spilled coffee.

"Ah, here already?" Coran glanced around and shrugged, "Oh well. I was hoping to have at least a minute to read up on you four, but I think I got the gist of it. Pidge, if you would?" He turned to the girl.

She'd pulled her guitar out of her case and was checking it over. She froze at the sound of her name and looked up at Coran nervously. "If I would what?"

"You know..." The professor tapped his temple with one hand and gestured to the elevator doors with the other.

The girl blanched. "How did you-"

"If you can do something to get us out of here and away from this _maniac,"_ the boy in blue said, "please do it!"

The girl---Pidge---sighed and tucked her guitar and sheet music into the case. She stood, slung the case back over her shoulder, and carefully avoiding the spilled coffee, walked over to the panel of buttons. "Anyone got a screwdriver?" she asked.

Nobody said anything.

"Um," Keith spoke up. He suddenly regretted leaving his knife at Shiro's that morning. He detached the pencil from his drawing tablet and held it out to her. "I have the pencil to my drawing tablet. My brother used it once or twice to fix his camera. Think it'll work?"

The girl took it from him, looked at it, and shrugged. "Worth a shot." She flipped it around in her hands for a second before carefully sticking it into one of the screws holding the panel to the wall and pulling it out. She pulled out two more screws and pushed the panel out of her way with surprising strength. She fidgeted with the wires for a bit before striking two against each other. The doors sprung open and she stepped out.

Keith, along with the other two boys in the elevator, wasted no time following her. The four of them stood in confusion in the almost pitch-black basement.

Coran stood in the elevator, staring dumbstruck at Pidge. "That's... not exactly what I meant, but alright then."

"What did you mean?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms.

He laughed and shook his head. "Nevermind, then. Follow me." He moved out of the elevator and started walking into the basement. As he walked, lights along the sides of the room lit up and dimmed after he passed. The four had to hurry to keep up with him and stay in the light.

* * *

Lance shared a confused look with Hunk, Pidge, and the boy in leather. None of them seemed to have any idea what was going on.

"This walk might take a bit," Coran called over his shoulder, "So why don't you four introduce yourselves?"

The look they shared this time was apprehensive instead of confused.

Pidge sighed and spoke up. "I guess, since you already know my name, I'll go first. Hi, my name's Katie-" She froze and snorted. "Did I just dead name _myself?_ God, you can tell how weird this situation is. It's Pidge, actually. Ze/zir pronouns, please. Or they/them, I guess. Um, I'm a music major." Sh- _ze_ patted the guitar case on zir shoulder.

"Ze/zir, huh?" Lance asked, "That's going to take some getting used to. We'll all try our best though, right?" Hunk and the other boy nodded.

Ze smiled. "Thanks, guys."

"I'll go next then. The name's Lance. I'm a theatre and dance double-major. I couldn't really decide." He laughed.

"So you're a musical kid. Got it," the black-haired boy said, nodding sarcastically.

"He _is,_ though!" Hunk exclaimed, "No offense bud, but it can get kinda annoying. You've only _just_ barely stopped singing your parts from _Seussical Jr._ And we did that show two years ago!" He froze and slapped a hand over his face. "Crap. You're going to start singing it now, aren't you?"

Lance smirked and started belting out JoJo's part from 'Alone in the Universe'. He only got two lines in before Hunk slapped his hand over his mouth.

 _"Anyway,"_ Hunk said, "I'm Hunk. Lance and I grew up together, so we know each other pretty well, in case you couldn't tell. Hey, that rhymed. I'm majoring in literary arts." He waved his journal and laptop and hesitantly pulled his hand away from Lance's face. "And you're the only one left." He gestured to the boy in leather.

He sighed. "So I am. I'm Keith. Visual. My brother is-"

"Takashi Shirogane?" Pidge piped up, "Shiro? The photographer? Is he your brother?"

Keith nodded slowly. "Yeah. How did you know? We barely look alike."

"My brother's his best friend. Matt. Holt? Ring any bells?" ze asked.

Keith thought for a second before nodding. "Yeah. Works at Atlas University with your dad? I've never really met him, but Shiro talks about him all the time. He's going to be his best man at Shiro and Adam's wedding. Or so they say. If one of them ever gets up the nerves to propose."

Pidge scoffed. "Normally I'd say, 'give them time, they both just graduated high school', but in this case? You mean neither of them has proposed yet? Matt said they've been together since their freshman year! Typical."

Lance raised an eyebrow. "Wait, Keith. Your brother's gay?"

"What, got no problems with Pidge being non-binary, but you don't like my brother being gay?" Keith got defensive all of a sudden. "Yeah, he is. And so am I." Ah, that was why.

"No!" Lance shouted. Great, and now he sounds defensive as well. Just when he was thinking he might have a chance with this guy. "No, of course not. Just... thought it was interesting. I'm bi. And Hunk here is pan. Sorry bud, hope you don't mind me outing you."

Hunk smiled and shook his head. "No prob, Lance. I know it was just a ramble. And before either of you say anything, I already have a girlfriend. Shay. She lives back in Garrison, where Lance and I are from."

All four of them laughed.

So they didn't realize Coran had stopped, causing them all to run directly into him and bounce onto the ground.

The teacher just grinned and turned to face them. "I'm glad to see you're all getting along. Allura'll be happy. And so will your brother, Keith." He stepped aside and gestured to a ladder leading up to a trap door in the ceiling. "Up you go!"

Lance glanced at the other three nervously. Keith shrugged and pushed himself up off the ground and started to climb the ladder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise you, there will be no angsty pining in this fic. As soon as the whole team dynamic gets figured out, Lance and/or Keith are going to ask each other out. And from there, the team will be the main focus of the story with maybe some KLance undertones.


	3. Powers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See, this is why we don't let Trixx take more than one day off of school. Even though I'm technically back in school now, but still.

Pidge watched Keith climb up the ladder Coran had pulled down. Lance followed, and ze went up after him. Hunk came after and Coran went last.

"Shiro!" ze heard Keith cry just as ze was pushing zieself through the trapdoor.

The place looked like a warehouse somebody had tried to make seem comfortable. Posters for old TV shows hung around the walls and two couches and several bean bags had been placed in the center, around a table. At the table stood two people. Two _famous_ people. Allura, the pop star daughter of Alfor Altea, who owned Altea Academy. And Takashi Shirogane, who, along with being Keith's brother, was a famous photographer. Both had graduated from Altea the year before.

"What're you doing here?" Keith asked, bringing Pidge's attention back to zir classmates, "I thought you had a shoot in the park with that Allura chick. The popstar."

"Um, Keith?" Lance asked, tapping Keith's shoulder gently. He was very clearly starstruck. And the only one in the room who was. Once Keith glanced at him with a raised eyebrow, he pointed to Allura. "That's Allura."

"Yeah, I know," Keith said with a shrug, "I may not listen to her music, but I know what she looks like. You don't think I haven't noticed all of her posters on the walls at Altea?"

Pidge snorted and went to stand with the two boys, followed by Hunk. Coran stood with Allura and Shiro, who were both laughing as well.

"So what is all this?" Pidge asked, gesturing around, "Some ply to show us how successful we can be after we graduate? Because I'm pretty sure we all know already."

Shiro glanced at Allura and nudged her shoulder with his. "I'll let you take the lead on this one. You are the one that found all of them."

"That I am," she said, stepping forward and smiling at the four students, "Well, first, welcome to Altea! It truly is a wonderful school and I know you're all going to love it here. Second, anyone mind demonstrating their powers for us?"

All four froze and blanched.

"Our... what?" Lance said, "Powers? What are you talking about?"

Allura just smiled and looked at them. "No one? Alright, Shiro and I will go first. Someone think of something they need at this exact moment."

 _A replacement for my coffee,_ Pidge thought. The caffeine hadn't fully kicked in, and ze had really been enjoying it while ze'd still had it.

Allura's smile widened and all of a sudden Pidge was holding a small insulated water bottle.

Pidge raised zir eyebrows at Allura and she gestured for zim to try it. Hesitantly, ze raised the bottle to zir lips and took a sip. It tasted exactly like the coffee ze'd bought at the shop in the lobby.

"Is this real?" ze asked, gesturing to the bottle.

Allura chuckled and nodded. "Yes. I have superpowers. And so does Shiro. And so do all of you. I have telekinesis and can create things from thoughts, both mine and other's." All for gaped at her.

So that was how Coran had known about Pidge's technopathy in the elevator. Allura knew, and she'd told him. Wait, but how did Allura know? And did she say _all_ of them had powers? What were the boys' powers?

Before Pidge could ask any of the questions surfacing in zir mind, Allura was speaking again. "Shiro, would you like to demonstrate your powers?" She gestured to an empty spot in the space and a sheet of steel hanging from a chain from the ceiling suddenly appeared.

Shiro nodded and walked over to it. He shook out his prosthetic right arm---part of the reason he was so famous---and it started to glow with a bright purple light. He leveled it at the metal sheet and, in one swift motion, cut the entire thing in half.

* * *

Keith flinched as he watched his brother reveal the power he'd been keeping secret for the past few years. Of course, that was nothing compared to how long Keith had been keeping is secret, but still.

"Alright, what the fuck?" Lance asked, wheeling back to face Allura.

The singer just wiggled her eyebrows and asked again, "Anyone else care to demonstrate?"

"Keith?" Shiro asked, coming to stand next to Allura again.

Keith's eyes widened and he shook his head vigorously. It'd been a secret his entire life! He wasn't about to show it to a bunch of people who were practically strangers!

Next to him, Pidge shrugged and stepped forward. "Fuck it. I'll go first. Lance, take out your phone."

Lance hesitated but did as Pidge said.

"Gimme," ze said and grabbed it from his hands.

"Hey! Give that back!" Lance yelped, following Pidge as ze brought it over to the table. Hunk and Keith followed as well, if only to see where this was going.

Pidge placed it on the table and turned it on. It vibrated and put zim on the passcode screen. "Ooh, you have a passcode," ze said, "That makes this even more fun!"

"What are you doing?" Lance said nervously, making both Keith and Pidge laugh.

"You'll see," ze said, "Now everyone shut up. I need to focus to do this." Ze pulled off zir glasses and placed them on the table before touching the phone with one hand and zir temple with the other. After a few seconds, the passcode filled itself in and the phone had opened to his texts with someone called '💖Big Sis V❄️‘. Ze raised zir eyebrows and turned to Lance. "Who's V?" ze asked, "And what's this about you stealing a bunch of her clothes when you came here?"

"How- What-" Lance sputtered and this time the entire group laughed except for him. "Did you just hack my phone?! With your mind?!" 

"Pretty much," Pidge said, handing the phone back to him, "I'm a technopath. I can communicate with technology and control it. I'm pretty sure that's what Coran was telling me to do back in the elevator, rather than screw with the wires."

"That's... honestly pretty cool," Hunk said. Keith and Lance both nodded. Allura smiled at zim and Shiro patted zim on the shoulder.

"So, anyone else wanna go?" Allura asked, turning her attention back to the other three.

Keith's eyes widened again and he shied away towards the back of the group, avoiding Shiro's stare.

Luckily, Lance started bouncing on the balls of his feet and said, "Ooh! I'll go!"

"Alright Lance, go ahead," Shiro said, turning his attention to the Latino boy, "Is there anything you need? A target?"

He nodded and started moving to one end of the space. "Yeah. On the wall over there." He pointed to the other end. "And can you guys move out of the middle of the room? And maybe take all of that stuff with you? Just to be safe."

A target appeared attached to the wall on the opposite end of the space and Allura gestured for everyone to move out of the middle. Once everyone was out of the way, she levitated all of the seats and the table to the sides.

Lance nodded once everything was clear. He bent down and pulled something off his leg from under his pant leg. He flicked his wrist and it extended into a large blue and silver bow.

Keith saw Hunk's eyes widen and his jaw drop. "I recognize that bow," he whispered.

Lance didn't seem to hear. He drew back on the string without knocking an arrow and a bolt of pure ice appeared in place of one. He let it go and it flew across the room, hitting a perfect bull's eye.

Surprise was painted across everyone's face. Everyone except for Lance's and Hunk's, that is. Lance looked perfectly calm and Hunk looked like he was scared out of his mind.

"Lance!" Hunk squeaked, "You didn't tell me you were Ice Queen!"

Lance scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Come on Hunk, Ice _Queen._ She's a girl. It was Veronica. I'm just her younger brother."

"Who's Ice Queen?" Keith said, asking the question he was pretty sure was playing across everyone's mind. Even Allura and Shiro looked confused, and they seemed to know everything about everyone in this room.

"Ice Queen was a supervillain back in Garrison. It's such a small town that nobody knew about her. She gave it up about a year ago after the police came really close to arresting her. That's her bow," Hunk said, pointing to it. He turned to Lance. "And now you're telling me _Veronica_ was Ice Queen? The nicest of your siblings?"

Lance sighed and shook his head. "None of us knew. Until I found the bow in her room a month ago. I'm the only one that knows, and she told me everything. She was let go from her job and didn't tell anyone. She didn't want to let us down. So she started stealing. She was gifted the bow from an anonymous source and decided to bring it along when she went on heists just in case. She never wanted to be a villain. She didn't stop _because_ the police almost caught her, that was just the last time she stole before she got a new job." He breathed deeply and stood more confidently. "And now I want to start using her bow for good. Not evil."

Allura smiled and went over to him, pulling him into a hug. "Thank you for telling us that. And don't worry, you will. But for now-" She pulled away and glanced at her watch. "-you five need to get back to school! Your next class starts in five minutes. Don't worry, you all will be back here during homeroom tomorrow."

"How are we going to get back?" Hunk asked, "The elevator's busted and that was a pretty long walk."

Shiro chuckled. "Don't worry, your ride should be arriving-"

"Now." A girl with long blonde pigtails wearing a pink dress appeared in the middle of the space. "Hi, name's Romelle, I have the power of teleportation, I'm only a last resort for you guys, let's go!" She held out her hands to the five that needed to get back to school.

The students glanced at each other, shrugged, and grabbed her hands or arms. Coran did too. The next thing they knew, they were in a classroom back at Altea and Romelle was gone. Just as they were registering all of this, the bell rang.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep switching POV at increasingly random spots and I'm a little nervous for my sanity.


	4. New Roommate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Guess I didn't need as long as I thought I did! And, surprise, this chapter is actually all from one character's POV! And it's a character I haven't really done POV for before!
> 
> TW: Mentions of and the beginning of an anxiety attack. It's kind of all over the chapter, so just be careful if that's something that triggers you. My best guidelines would be from when Hunk calls Shay to when he goes into the dorm.

Hunk, sadly, didn't have class with anyone in his homeroom for the rest of the day. Even though Altea was an arts school, all of the students still had all of the core classes. Hunk's schedule looked like this:

1: Homeroom  
2: AP Human Geography  
3: Creative Writing 1  
4: Lunch  
5: Advanced English 10  
6: Study Hall  
7: Algebra 1  
8: Physical Science

Luckily, the four of them did have lunch together. Hunk, Lance, Keith, and Pidge all somehow drifted into each other's circles in the cafeteria before agreeing to go to the library to eat. They didn't talk about much, considering they barely knew each other. But it was still better than just sitting alone with Lance or trying to make friends with random people in the cafeteria. Even though Lance insisted he could make friends with anyone he wanted to.

The next time Hunk saw anyone from his homeroom, it was Lance in their shared dorm room.

He was fiddling with Ice Queen _\---Veronica's---_ bow.

Hunk really wanted to ask Lance more about it, but he didn't want to seem rude. Then again, he didn't want to be scared out of his mind every second he was in his dorm, every second he was around his _best friend,_ just because said best friend was the younger brother of a supervillain and carried around said supervillain's weapon.

He ended up leaving the dorm before Lance even noticed he'd been there, pulling out his phone, and calling Shay. He idly wandered through the hallways of the school while he waited for his girlfriend to pick up, and when she eventually did, a grin split his face.

Shay Balmera's parents were close friends with the Garretts, so Hunk had practically grown up with Shay, just as he had with Lance. He'd always felt closer to Lance, though. Until earlier that year when Shay asked Hunk out. They'd been dating for about two months now, and even with the distance that came from Hunk being at Altea and halfway across the country, he knew he was absolutely, positively, no questions asked, in love with this girl. And aside from Lance, she was one of the only people who could calm him down when he felt like he was about to have an anxiety attack.

Which he was dangerously close to being now.

"Hey, Sunshine!" Shay greeted. Just the sound of her voice across a phone line calmed the clenching in Hunk's chest. "How was your first day at that fancy arts school? Altea, right?"

"Yeah, Altea Academy for the Arts," Hunk said. He held his phone to his ear with his shoulder as he rolled up the sleeves of his long-sleeve T-shirt. "And it was great. The literary teacher, Ms. June, is really nice and so is Coran, my homeroom teacher."

"You have homeroom with Lance, right?" Shay asked.

Hunk hummed and nodded before he remembered she couldn't see him. "Yeah. And two guys named Keith and Pidge." He paused and shrugged. "Pidge's actually non-binary, though."

"That's it?" she mused, "Small homeroom."

"Well, you're one to talk," Hunk laughed, rolling his eyes. Shay was homeschooled.

The two talked for a couple of hours until Hunk had fully calmed down and they'd fully updated each other one everything that had happened since Hunk and Lance had gotten on the plane two days before. He got back to the dorm just as Lance came out of it, carrying his evening routine things.

"Oh! Hey, Hunk," Lance said. His eyes widened as he noticed Hunk's rolled-up sleeves and he shifted so he had a hand free just in case. One of the first signs of Hunk having an anxiety attack was that everything felt too hot to him. "Everything okay?"

Hunk smiled and nodded. "It is now. Shay called just as I came into the dorm after school and you looked pretty focused on cleaning your bow, and I didn't want to disrupt you, so I left the dorm and started wandering around the halls. We just hung up."

"Okay, good," Lance said, grinning. He gestured to the towel and soaps in his hand. "Well, I'm gonna go take a shower real quick. I'll have my phone, so just text or call if... things happen again, 'kay?"

"I always do," Hunk said as he went into their dorm. And, okay, that was kind of a lie after what had just happened, but in other cases, it wasn't.

Hunk sat down at his desk and pulled out his laptop and one of his notebooks of story ideas. One of the required out-of-class activities for literary majors was that they had to write a short story for the school's literary journal. He wanted to get a head start. Especially since he'd had a few ideas rolling around in his head for a few months and he finally had an excuse to write them full out.

He was flipping through the notebook, trying to decide on one idea, when the door was thrown open and a familiar, complaining voice filled the silent space.

"Seriously Shiro? You still lived at home when you went to Altea!"

Considering this conversation was taking place over the phone, Hunk didn't hear the response.

"Your new apartment, where I live with you and Adam, is _literally_ right next door. Like, people confuse the apartment building and Altea because they look so similar."

Hunk stood and plodded over to Keith, who was holding his phone to his ear with his shoulder and lugging a suitcase and a duffel bag with him. "Hi Keith," he said quietly as he took the duffel bag, which he dropped onto the third bed in the room. The one that neither he nor Lance had claimed.

Keith just stared at him.

"You didn't tell me Hunk was my roommate."

"Lance is too, he's just in the shower right now," Hunk said as he sat down again.

If Keith's cheeks tinged slightly pink at that, Hunk wasn't going to say anything about it. At least, he wasn't going to tell Lance, who he could already tell had a crush on Keith. It's just what comes with growing up with someone.

Hunk couldn't hear what Shiro said in response. Judging by how he'd acted around Keith that morning, he assumed it was something along the lines of: "You sure you won't be able to handle living in a dorm?"

To which Keith scowled and said, "Shut up, Shiro!" before hanging up on his brother. He huffed and shoved his phone into his pocket.

"Everything okay?" Hunk said, echoing what Lance had asked him not five minutes earlier.

Keith just raised an eyebrow at him. "The only reason I'm agreeing to stay in a dorm at all is that I already kinda get along with you two. That my bed?" He pointed to the one Hunk had put his bag on.

Hunk nodded and didn't push the subject. As Keith flopped onto his bed, he decided that as soon as Lance was back he was going to figure out how to sneak into the kitchens and then he was going to make the three of them some cookies. Maybe he'd save some for Pidge too, but it all depended on how much everybody was going to eat. It was the least he could do for his new roommate who didn't want to be there at all. And maybe having the cookies would help him feel more confident about talking to Lance about Ice Queen--- _Veronica._

Nodding, he turned back to his notebook and laptop to work on his short story again.


	5. Powers pt. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this is super late. For four reasons:  
> A. I kinda sorta forgot I was writing this,  
> B. I was working on other projects,  
> C. I wanted to work through and change a few things that are going to happen in the future of this story,  
> and D. I had three tests and was using all my writing time to study for them.  
> You can choose which one you think is the main reason. 'Cause it's _definitely_ one of those, and _not_ just that I was procrastinating writing this chapter for reasons that even I don't know.

Things had been pretty awkward when Lance had gotten back to the dorm, mainly because he hadn't been expecting Keith to be there. When he normally would've just changed in the middle of the room, he found himself insisting on climbing under the blankets on his bed and changing there. Hunk asked him later why he'd done that, and he couldn't answer.

Later that night, just as the three of them were getting ready to go to bed, there had been a knock on the door. Lance had opened it to find a disgruntled and pissed off Pidge carrying a pillow and a few bags. Ze'd barged into the room and practically forced them to accept ze was now their fourth roommate, even though there were only three beds. Ze slept on the floor. None of the boys had questioned it.

And now the four of them were waiting for the elevator, just like the day before. And just like before, Coran rushed the elevator at the last second.

They actually went all the way up to the fifth floor this time and found the girl with blonde pigtails waiting for them in the classroom.

Keith frowned when he noticed her. "Couldn't we just walk, like yesterday?" the black-haired boy asked.

Romelle giggled and nodded. "You could, but the princess- er, Allura wants you to use all the time available to you. You six have a lot to talk about today. Coran and I are gonna hang around the Castle, and then I'll bring all of you back when you're done. Ready?" She held her arms out in front of her again. Once she was sure everyone was holding on tight, she triggered her power and all of a sudden, they were back in the warehouse-type place from the day before.

Allura and Shiro were sitting on one of the couches around the table, which had all been moved back into the center. As the six of them appeared, they looked up from what had seemed to be an intense discussion and stood.

"Welcome back!" Allura said, grinning. She walked around the rest of the furniture as Keith, Hunk, Pidge, Lance, Romelle, and Coran separated. "Thanks, babe," she murmured to Romelle, pressing a quick kiss to her temple.

"Anytime, Princess," the blonde giggled, pulling Allura's face down to peck her lips. She then bounced away from the others in the room, followed by Coran. The two of them hovered closer to the walls and watched silently.

Allura blushed as she turned to the four teenagers, but quickly regained her wits when she noticed their smirks and shit-eating grins. She cleared her throat and gestured for them to place their things on the table and sit down. The four did as they were told, all of them except for Keith sitting on the couch opposite to where Allura and Shiro had been sitting. Keith stayed standing and leaned against the arm of the couch.

"So, Hunk, Keith," Allura said, glancing between the two of them, "Who wants to go first?"

Keith was very pointedly _not_ looking at Shiro. Hunk glanced between Keith, Allura, and his own hands in his lap. Both of them stayed silent.

Keith ended up being the first to move, surprising all of them. After about thirty seconds, he sighed and held his hand out to his brother. "Give me the freaking bag of clothes that I _know_ you have and I'll go change. Well, not _change._ I'll wait to do that in front of you guys. Is there a bathroom in this place?"

Everyone except for Allura and Shiro stared at him in confusion. Shiro smiled at his brother triumphantly and reached behind the couch he sat on, pulling out a drawstring backpack. He handed it to Keith and pointed to a door in the corner of the room.

Obviously upset, Keith took the bag and stomped over to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

The five that were left sat in silence until Hunk spoke up.

"I guess I could go while we wait for him."

Allura grinned and clapped like a small child. "Perfect! Why don't you help me clear the couches and table? Keith's takes a lot of space. Everyone up and out of the way!"

Pidge and Lance, now even more confused, both stood and moved away from the cluster of furniture, followed by Shiro. Allura stood as well and used her telekinesis to move the beanbags to the outskirts of the space. She then smiled and nodded to Hunk before moving over to the other three.

Hunk took a breath and turned to the couch. He stared at it for a second before picking it up as if it weighed no more than a feather and placing it about where Allura had deposited the beanbags. He did the same with the other couch and the table before stopping in the middle of the space, a sheepish smile across his face.

"Super strength," was all he said in response to Pidge and Lance's gaping expressions.

Lance's slack jaw quickly pulled up into a grin and he tackled his friend. Well, he attempted to tackle him. He ended up pretty much just wrapping around him like a koala. "That's awesome, man!" he shouted.

Hunk chuckled and patted Lance on the back. "Thanks, bud."

At that moment, Keith came out of the bathroom. He stopped two steps away from the door, blinking at where Lance was wrapped around Hunk. "Um... okay then," he said, turning to the Pidge, Shiro, and Allura.

Lance chuckled nervously and dropped back onto his feet on the floor. He and Hunk then went to stand with the others.

The clothes that Shiro had brought for Keith didn't seem too far off from what he had been wearing earlier. They were just a few sizes too big for his average height, skinny build.

"Alright, Keith," Allura said, "It's your turn."

Keith was silent and did nothing for almost a full minute. Then he took a deep breath, squeezed his eyes shut, and crouched low to the ground. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, his skin and hair started turning purple and he started to bulk up, filling out the too-large clothes. Cat-like ears sprouted from his head, his fingernails sharpened into claws, and a tail started to become visible over the waistband of the pants.

Lance, Pidge, and Hunk blinked furiously as they watched, all thinking the same thing: _there's no way this is possible._

But when Keith stood up again, there was no way that it couldn't. Keith was, in fact, some sort of purple-cat-man-thing.

"There," Keith said, sounding very much as if he was trying to hold back a lot of anger, "I'm an alien. Happy?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> jjhijrkbhijrkgshjiaokf I literally did five Google searches _and_ looked at the official Wiki to try to find a height chart that included Romelle but I couldn't find one. 😕 So I'm sorry if the height differences were incorrect.
> 
> Also, I'm trying out an omniscient 3rd instead of limited 3rd for narration. Which do you like better? Personally, omniscient is easier because I don't have to keep track of which character was just narrating if I want to switch, but if you liked that I can go back to it. 🙃


	6. A/N: Just kinda rambling, but also an idea?

SO.

I'm gonna try really hard to finish this, I've only ever finished one multi-chapter story in my life. That would be my Alice in Wonderland AU, Nightmare Gone Bad.

I'll probably put The Truth Will Come Out even more on the back burner than it has been, although if you guys want I can try to wrap that one up real quick and then come back to this one.

ANYWAY, about Academy of Geminis. I will try really hard to finish it, even though I only have a vague idea of what's going to happen beyond the next chapter. I'll do my best.

In early March and late February though, I'm going to have to take a break from this (if it lasts that long), because I've been commissioned to write something by a friend of mine. Hint, hint: We met at our dance studio, which is doing _The Little Mermaid_ for their spring show, and we're both hella gay. ;)

Speaking of commissions: Would that be something you guys are interested in? If you guys think so, I'll set up a commission box and once I finish this story, I'll start taking some! I'll post more details when I get closer to the end of this fic if I end up doing it.

And I still haven't decided if I want to keep on with the omniscient POV from the last chapter or go back to limited 3rd like before. Still looking for input!

I just realized how many times I've said 'you guys' in this, LMAO.

Thanks so much for reading and all of your super nice comments!!! XD


	7. We Finally Get a Backstory

"Alright, Keith," Allura said, "It's your turn."

Keith was silent and did nothing for almost a full minute. Then he took a deep breath, squeezed his eyes shut, and crouched low to the ground. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, his skin and hair started turning purple and he started to bulk up, filling out the too-large clothes. Cat-like ears sprouted from his head, his fingernails sharpened into claws, and a tail started to become visible over the waistband of the pants.

Lance, Pidge, and Hunk blinked furiously as they watched, all thinking the same thing: _there's no way this is possible._

But when Keith stood up again, there was no way that it couldn't. Keith was, in fact, some sort of purple-cat-man-thing.

"There," Keith said, sounding very much as if he was trying to hold back a lot of anger, "I'm an alien. Happy?

* * *

Now it was the others' turn to be silent for almost a full minute.

It was Pidge that broke the silence. "You're a... what?" ze asked.

Keith's mask of anger fell. He flinched and slightly hunched in on himself. "I'm an alien," he repeated, "Well, half. My dad was a human, my mom's... shit, what did she call it, Shiro?"

Before his brother could answer, Allura stepped in. "Your mother is Galra. Specifically, a part of a Galra rebel group of spies called the Blade of Marmora."

"Right. That." He nodded and then paused. "Wait, how did you know? In fact, how the hell did you _find_ us? As far as I can tell, we've all done pretty good at hiding these 'powers.'"

Allura smiled and chuckled at that. "I know because I grew up with the emperor of the Galra as practically my uncle. I found you because you all have something in common: Having a link to either the Galra or Alteans."

Lance raised an eyebrow and looked over at Allura. "The Alteans? Like, graduates of Altea Academy? Because I know for a fact neither Hunk nor I do."

At that, Allura laughed and a smirk danced across Shiro's face. Coran and Romelle—whom the students had forgotten were in the room—laughed as well.

Keith settled a glare at his brother. "What are you guys not telling us?" he growled. In his Galra form, the growl was almost more audible than the actual words.

Romelle giggled and flounced over to Allura. "Babe, they really don't know?"

Allura smiled and stepped into the center of the space. "Well, I guess it looks like the four of us owe the four of you an explanation. Starting with this." She reached up and rubbed at the bottom corners of her eyes. When she lowered her hands, a layer of foundation had been removed from her makeup and revealed...

Two glowing pink 'v' shaped lining the corners of her eyes.

Romelle did the same, revealing her own teal versions of the marks. She walked closer to her girlfriend.

Coran joined them in the middle. "I have them too," he said, although he didn't wipe any makeup off. A lopsided smile formed on his lips.

"We're aliens as well," Allura said, "Alteans. Ten years ago, our planet was destroyed. My father, the king, Coran, his advisor, and I were the only ones on the planet to escape. Romelle, as well as a few others, were off-planet on expeditions."

"Wait," Lance said, interrupting her, "Your father is the king? Shouldn't that make you... the princess?"

Keith narrowed his eyes at him. "You're more concerned with _that_ than the fact that they're aliens?"

He shrugged. "I mean, I've never _not_ believed in aliens. I don't find it too hard to believe. Plus, you're one too."

Keith bared his teeth and was about to snap back, but he was cut off as Allura chuckled and nodded.

"Yes, Lance," she said, "I am Princess Allura of Altea. Please, though, just call me Allura. Now, may I continue my story?"

Lance smiled sheepishly and lowered his head, stepping back.

"Thank you." She paused, seemingly to gather her thoughts, and then turned to Coran. "Actually, I think Coran should tell the story. He most likely remembers it better than me."

The ginger grinned and clapped. "Of course! I would be delighted to tell our story! But first, can you and Hunk please return the seats to their spots? No story is good if you're forced to stand for its entirety."

Allura laughed and nodded, gesturing for Hunk to help her. Between the two of them, they had the table, couches, and bean bags back in their spots in under a minute. Lance, Pidge, and Hunk sat on one of the couches, with Keith leaning against the arm of it. Allura, Romelle, and Shiro sat on the other. Coran stood at one end of the table between them and placed a small white device on it.

He tapped the device and a hologram suddenly erupted from it, dousing the space in bright blue light.

"As Allura already said, the three of us—along with Alfor—are from a planet called Altea. Altea is several light-years away from Earth. Or, was. A little over ten years ago, Altea and Daibazaal, home of the Galra, fell into war and both planets were destroyed. The Galra were able to evacuate. For the most part, the Alteans were not."

As Coran spoke, the hologram showed images relating to what he was saying.

"Thinking Alfor and Allura dead, Zarkon, the emperor of the Galra, and his fleet left the solar system and went in search of another planet to live on. So far, he has been unable to find an uninhabited, but habit _able_ planet. He and his wife, Haggar, have become more peaceful now that the effects of Quintessence corruption have worn off. The corruption is what made our two planets go to war. They've since calmed down, and while the Galra is still a militarian race, they've found they don't need a planet and are content to roam the universe in their ships. However, the emperor and his queen, along with several higher-ups in the Galran hierarchy have settled down on Earth. They founded this very city, in fact, which is why it's called Daibazaal.

"This city has also become a safe haven for many alien runaways. Several of them either naturally look like humans, or use Altean alchemy to make themselves look like humans, which is why nobody has ever noticed. Zarkon's never suspected Alfor of owning Altea Academy because all of the documents that reach his eyes are actually under my name. We believe that, since Zarkon and Alfor were friends before the Quintessence poisoning, he wouldn't much care, even be _happy_ if he knew that Alfor had made it out, but it's a just in case."

He hesitated and sighed before speaking. "It's not so much Zarkon we're worried about anymore. It's his son, Lotor." An image of a man with purple skin and long, silvery hair appeared over the hologram. "Lotor discovered that we made it off of Altea just in time, and based on some of his actions on other planets, we believe that he might be attempting to re-spark the war between the Alteans and the Galra."

"What are some of his 'actions' that make you think that?" Keith asked, raising a brow. It was the first time anyone except for Coran had spoken since they'd all sat down.

Coran nodded to him, acknowledging his question, and flicked through a few more images on the hologram. "He and his generals have attacked former allies of Altea, forcing them to send threatening transmissions to us. Several of our closest allies were some of the first. But, mainly?" An image of a pod, similar to ones from Altea that he'd shown before, appeared. The pod was broken clean in half and in the distance of the image was a ship he'd earlier associated with the Galra, and more specifically Lotor. "Until recently, we had almost complete contact with the one hundred and fifty-eight Alteans that were off-planet during the attack. Now, Romelle is the only one."

Everyone's eyes drifted to the blonde Altean, who tucked herself closer to Allura's side as tears pricked at her eyes. "I came to Earth as soon as I got the first transmission from the King, leaving my brother alone in space. He was happy with it, wanting to explore the universe on his own. Bandor was one of the first to go missing, five years ago. We only just realized that was the reason we stopped receiving messages from him." Allura wrapped an arm around her and pulled Romelle's head down to rest on her shoulder.

The Princess looked up from her girlfriend to the young teenagers before her. "This is why we've gathered you four. We think that Earth may be Lotor's next target, and without any Altean back up forces, we need the best we can get. That means we need people with connections to Alteans. Or Galra," she added, glancing at Keith and Shiro.

"What do you mean, 'connections to Alteans'?" Pidge asked, scooting forward to sit on the edge of zir seat.

"Exactly that," Allura said, "Pidge, you are imbued with Altean technology. A few months before you were born, your father was able to communicate with an Altean, who came to Earth to help him experiment. We don't have records of who it was, only that it was someone with green marks."

Pidge's jaw dropped and ze stared down at zir hands.

"Hunk. Lance." Allura turned to them, causing them to jump. "You were raised in a base of the Galaxy Garrison, an undercover organization that works with aliens. Your hometown, Garrison, is mostly used for containment and observation of these aliens. You're both descendants of different alien races. Lance, you are my cousin. Very distant, keep in mind, but my cousin nonetheless. Hunk, you're related to the Balmerans." She chuckled at his paled face. "Don't worry, you have no relation to Shay. Your families are from different Balmeras, or planets. She is a direct descendant though. Maybe when you go home for the summer you should ask her to show you what she really looks like."

Just as Lance and Hunk were about to speak up, Shiro glanced at his watch and leaped to his feet. "Alright, no more time for questions. You guys just missed most of your second hour!"

The four students yelped and jumped up as well. Romelle teleported them back to the school and they all rushed away to their classes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, this really fucking long chapter _totally_ wasn't originally meant to be even longer with Hunk maybe almost having an anxiety attack again but I realized I rambled on about that for too long and took it out. Why would you even ask that?
> 
> OK, fair warning: After the next chapter, things might get either a little more infrequent again or the quality in writing might go down. Because I've barely thought about what's going to happen after the team gets fully figured out and all that. Plus, that's when the action really kicks up and if you've read my Miraculous Ladybug AU, you'll know I've said I can't write fight scenes that well. Surprising for someone who one of their favorite hobbies is fencing.


	8. Names

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AKA: Trixx tried to hold off on the KLance shit as long as she could and failed. But that's not the main point of the chapter and could be considered spoilers I mean what?...
> 
> LMFAO

Just like the day before, Lance, Hunk, Pidge, and Keith met up again in the cafeteria before heading to the library to eat. They didn't talk for a long while, still registering what Allura had told them that morning.

Pidge was the first to break the silence. "So... we're all related to aliens."

Keith raised an eyebrow and glanced over at zim. "Hunk, Lance, and I all are. You're just part alien technology. That's not exactly the same thing."

Ze had just opened zir mouth to snap in response, but Lance cut zim off.

"Okay, cool, yeah," he said, picking at his food, "Again, never _not_ believed in aliens, plus even I have to admit a lot of people in Garrison were pretty weird and suspicious. But, what I'm confused about is how my sister's ice-bow-thing a, is counted as a 'power', and b, means I'm part... Altean."

Pidge hummed and turned to him. "Has anyone else ever tried to use the bow? Besides you or your sister?"

He thought for a second and shook his head. "No, not that I know of. Then again, we barely know anything about it at all."

Ze held zir hand out. "Let us try it. Maybe it's something that only Alteans can do. Or something only your family can do."

He eyed zir hand and slowly pulled the bow in its miniaturized form out of his sock, handing it to zim. "Flick your wrist to get it to full size. Then just treat it as if it were a normal bow, even though you won't have any bolts or a bowstring."

Ze nodded, studying it. After a second ze held it back out and flicked zir wrist as Lance said. Nothing happened. Lance frowned as Pidge handed it to Keith. The half-Galra copied Pidge, and he also had no result. His frown deepened as the bow was passed to Hunk, whose results were the same as the other two. That is to say, there were none.

"See?" Pidge said as Hunk gave it back to him, "We can't do it. We'll have to ask Romelle or Allura to try it tomorrow. Or we could just ask them about it, see if they know why."

Lance nodded, studying the bow closer than he had before. This wasn't something he had ever considered before, that it might not be accessible to everyone. Looking back on how Veronica said she'd gotten it though, it made sense now. Why would someone anonymously send someone a super-dangerous weapon like this if just everyone could use it? There'd be no point.

He was practically yanked out of his thoughts as all four of their phones went off at the same time. He slipped the bow back into place and pulled out his phone, peering at the notification.

 **From:** _Unknown Number 1_ **To:** _You, 🌟Best Bud☀️, Unknown Number 2, Unknown Number 3, Unknown Number 4_  
 **Unknown Number 1:** _Hello everyone! It’s Allura. Just for the sake of everyone else, could you sound off? Simply say 'hi' and your name. Thanks!  
Also, your 'homework': Come up with a superhero name and costume, if possible. 'Due' by the end of the week!_

He raised his eyebrows and glanced up at the others. "You guys get that too? The text from Allura?"

The others nodded as they started typing in their 'sound off' as Allura had called it, making his phone go off again and again.

 **Unknown Number 3:** _Keith  
_ **🌟Best Bud☀️:** _Hey guys! I'm Hunk!_ **  
Unknown Number 4:** _Sup princess. It's pidge_ **  
****Unknown Number 2:** _Hi everyone! This is Shiro_ **  
****You:** _Hola! Lance here!_ **  
**

Lance quickly added everyone in the group chat's contacts to his phone. He did his best to come up with nicknames on the spot so they'd be formatted like his other contacts. He figured as he got to know the others, the names would probably change.

"Really?" he heard from behind him, "'Emo Mullet'? That the best you can come up with?"

He looked over his shoulder and saw Keith leaning forward in his chair. He was watching his phone with raised eyebrows.

"Just for that, I'm never going to change it," he answered, turning off his phone and setting it on the table.

Keith rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair, taking a bite of the pizza he'd gotten from the cafeteria.

Pidge squinted at him. "Hey, I just realized. I'm pretty sure I've heard Shiro and Matt say you're lactose intolerant before. The fuck's with the pizza? You trying to kill yourself? You've gotten it two days in a row."

He scoffed. "Are you kidding me? This is the first time I haven't had anyone monitoring what I eat for an extended period of time in ten years. Hell yeah, I'm getting pizza. Haven't had it with cheese in that same amount of time. Why wouldn't I? Doesn't affect me as bad as Shiro and my mom seem to think."

Ze laughed and nodded. "Cool. I won't tell Shiro if you don't tell Matt I've been getting peanut butter cookies."

Keith laughed as well, practically choking on his pizza. "You got it, Pidgeon."

They were silent again for a while then, finishing up what was left of their lunches. This time is was Hunk that broke the silence.

"So..." he started, "Superhero names. God, that makes this feel more real. Any ideas?"

As Hunk spoke, the other realized he was right. Having to come up with names and design costumes for themselves... that _did_ make this whole thing seem that much more real. Before, they could pretend everything that went down in that warehouse was just a game. Nothing was going to come out of it. But now? Now they were actually doing this, designing alternate personalities for themselves. And even if they wanted to, there was probably no backing out at this point.

* * *

The names and costumes came to them at random moments:

Keith's came while he was video-chatting with his Mom, who was up in space on a Blade of Marmora base.

"Marmora," he whispered to himself, scrambling around the desk for a piece of paper and a pencil.

"What'd you say, Keith?" Krolia asked.

He shook his head, still searching for something to jot it down on and to sketch out his design for his costume. "Nothing, mom. Just... just remembered I have a huge assignment for one of my art classes. Gotta work on it. See you next week?"

She smiled and nodded. "Of course, hun. Good luck with the assignment. Tell me how it goes!" At that, she hung up, leaving him to work on his 'assignment'.

\---

Lance came up with his when he was helping Hunk make a batch of cookies as a midnight snack for them and their new roommates. Well, Hunk came up with it.

He was rummaging through the freezer, looking for something to snack on while the cookies were in the oven. Eventually, he saw a tub of ice cream and grabbed at it. Almost immediately, he hissed and pulled his hand back. The tub was too cold to grab.

"Dang freezer burn," he muttered, shutting the door behind him.

Hunk chuckled and shook his head at his friend's antics, watching the timer on the oven countdown. Suddenly, he frowned and glanced at him. "Wait, what did you say?"

Lance raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "'Dang freezer burn?' Ice cream's ruined."

His friend grinned and ran over to him, grabbing his shoulders. "Lance! That should totally be your superhero name! 'Freezer Burn!'"

He thought about it for a second before grinning as well and nodded. "Oh my god, you're right!"

\---

Hunk and Pidge both had no idea how they'd come up with theirs, but they both had them before Allura had said they'd needed them. Keith was the only one that had come up with a design for his super suit, but the princess was okay with that. She asked him to help the others come up with theirs. Exasperatedly, he agreed.

As a joke, she asked all of the superheroes to write their names on the wall of the warehouse in Sharpie. One by one, they did so.

Allura went first, writing _White Lion_ on the wall.

Shiro was next. _Champion_ went up underneath Allura's.

Then went Keith. _Marmora_ drifted off to the side, but close enough that Allura deemed it alright.

Lance went after him. He wrote _Freezer Burn_ in-between Keith's and the others.

He handed the marker to Hunk, who happily wrote _Boulder_ under Lance's.

Pidge went last, putting _Electron Shadow_ on the other side of Shiro and Allura's names from everyone else.

* * *

As they were leaving the room back at Altea Academy that day, Lance found himself running to catch up with Keith.

"Keith! Wait!" he called.

Keith turned to face him. "What's up, Lance?" he asked.

Lance bit his lip and stared down at the floor, nervous. He wasn't even sure why he was doing this. They barely knew each other. Sure, he thought Keith was attractive. But was it really a good idea to ask someone out after only knowing them for a school week? But Keith had already responded to his calling down the hallway and was looking at him with his face pinched in confusion.

He cleared his throat and met Keith's gaze. He was sure that if he wasn't already bright red from running down the halls, that he was now. "So, you know how we're allowed to leave campus on weekends as long as we're back for dinner?" Keith nodded slowly. Lance took a deep breath and the words came tumbling out. "Well, I was kinda wondering if you wanted to go out with me? Like, to a movie or something? Or if that's not cool with you we can just go to a cafe for lunch or something. You live around here, so you'd probably know the best place and-"

He was cut off as Keith smiled at him and placed a hand on his arm. "Yeah, Lance. Totally. I'll go out with you. Tomorrow?"

Lance grinned and nodded.

Keith chuckled. "Alright, cool. How about we do both? The theater's not far from this cafe that Shiro and Adam go to a lot."

Again, all Lance could do was grin and nod.

Keith nodded back. "Okay. Well, see you at lunch." With that, he turned and started walking away, waving to Lance over his shoulder.

Lance waved back, waiting until Keith turned the corner in the hall to sprint to his next class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, I've asked this on TikTok several times and two people have answered, but neither of them have actually given me results. Any artists reading this that would be willing to help me design and draw the suits? Cause I can't draw or design outfits to save my life.
> 
> Also: Academy of Geminis is now officially my second-most read work!!! I just need 900 more to get it to my most read LMAO


	9. The Date

On Saturday, Keith woke up earlier than he normally would've on the weekend. Groaning, he sat up and glanced around the room. It was still weird for him to wake up in a dorm rather than his own bedroom.

 _Although it's not entirely upsetting,_ he thought as his gaze rested on Lance. He'd thought Lance was pretty from the first time he saw him, waiting outside the elevator. His attraction had only grown over the past week as he got to know him. And now he was going on a date with him.

Wait.

He was going on a date. With Lance.

His eyes widened, and he jumped out of bed as the conversation from the day before came back to him. He hurried over to his section in the closet and threw on a random outfit and his leather jacket. Texting Shiro as he went, he sprinted out of the dorm---careful not to step on Pidge's sleeping form---and left the school, heading towards his brother's apartment.

* * *

Lance's eyes fluttered open, pulling him out of his sleep. Just as he sat up, Keith went flying past and out the door.

Lance frowned. _Where's he going? Did he forget about today?_ He paled as a thought occurred to him. _Did he get cold feet? O_ _r did he not mean it? Was he lying when he said he wanted to go out?_

Tears pricked at his eyes. That had to be it. Why else would Keith be in such a hurry to get away from him?

He sighed and lied in the silence of the dorm. He got out of bed about a few hours later, once Pidge and Hunk started to wake up.

 _Just in case, I'm still going to dress like I'm going on a date,_ he told himself as he rummaged through the clothes he'd brought, _Just... a more casual date._ In the end, he put on a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt and threw a denim button-up over the top, leaving it unbuttoned.

He went through his normal morning skincare routine, and if he added a little bit of concealer to cover up the bags under his eyes, well... Hunk would be the only one to notice. Probably. He finally deemed his appearance "good enough for a date but also casual enough if it doesn't happen" after spending about half an hour longer than normal on his hair. Packing his creams back into his bathroom bag, he returned to his dorm.

"Finally," Pidge huffed as he walked through the door. Ze and Hunk were both dressed and sitting on Hunk's bed. "We thought we were going to have to go get breakfast without you."

Lance rolled his eyes and gestured to the plate of cookies the two were sharing, walking over to his bed. "Obviously, you didn't care enough to wait to eat the leftover cookies, though." He dropped his bag on his bed and turned back to them. "Whatever. I'm here now, so you don't have to wait anymore. Come on. I'm starving." They started towards the cafeteria.

Ze scoffed. "Well, if you hadn't taken so long in the bathroom, we would have already been in the cafeteria. If not finished with breakfast and back up here!"

"Speaking of how long you were in the bathroom," Hunk cut in, _"Why_ did you take so long? That was pretty abnormal, even for you."

Lance blushed and dropped his gaze to the floor. "Well, I... I have a date today," he murmured.

Pidge's eyebrows disappeared over the top of zir glasses and into zir hairline. "No shit? We've been at school for a week! Who'd you get to go out with you?"

Just as Lance was opening to answer, Hunk interrupted him.

"Keith!" he called down the hall.

Lance gaped at his best friend. "H-how did you know?"

Hunk frowned at him. "I... didn't? It's just that, well..." He trailed off and gestured down the hall.

His brows pinched in confusion and he looked up. He yelped in surprise as he watched Keith flat-out sprinting in their direction. He came to a stop in front of Lance, bent at the waist and hands on his knees as he caught his breath.

"K-Keith?" Lance yelped, "A-are you okay?"

"Lance!" Keith cried, rocketing back up and placing his hands on Lance's shoulders. Lance would've flinched backward, if not for the almost-death-grip Keith had on him. "I'm really sorry I left so early, I just got nervous all of a sudden and went to go talk to Shiro, also I'm pretty sure I left all of my nicer clothes over at his apartment, so that was a thing that I needed to grab and I really hope you don't think I don't still want to go out with you because I do." He stopped, catching his breath once again. Glancing around, the two realized Hunk and Pidge had left them.

"Um, no, no it's fine," Lance stammered, "I, um... yeah. Yeah, it's okay." He was pretty sure he saw Keith smile at that. "Do you... wanna go now?" He paused and frowned. "I just realized we never talked about, like, what movie we were going to see."

Keith snorted and lowered his hands from Lance's shoulders. "I'm pretty sure the only movie I want to see that's in theaters right now is _Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker._ Shiro and I checked the times and the next showing is in an hour, at noon. That okay with you?"

Lance smiled and nodded. "Yeah, totally! I've been wanting to see it for a while."

Keith smiled as well and started fidgeting with the cuffs of the sleeves on his leather jacket. "Okay. That gives us time to stop at the cafe first, unless you wanted to do it after?"

"Cafe first is fine with me. I haven't really had breakfast yet," Lance said, reaching forward and taking Keith's hands in his. He wasn't sure why he did it, although he mentally claimed it was so Keith wouldn't ruin his jacket.

Keith grinned and let go of one of his hands, leading him out of the school and towards the cafe.

* * *

They'd been at the cafe for an hour, talking about everything and nothing. Family, comparing hometowns, movies and TV shows. The only topic they avoided was their superhero alter-egos. At some point, the conversation changed to their respective arts.

"Back home," Lance was saying, "I used to do a lot of community theatre. The company was called Baku. Luxia, the head director, also owned the dance studio that I danced at. She got to know me pretty well over the years." He laughed and took another bite of his half-eaten double-chocolate-chip muffin.

Keith smiled and nodded, but then bit his lip and started digging in the bag he'd brought, which was slung over the back of the chair. "Um, Lance?" he said, pulling out his drawing tablet.

"Yeah?" Lance replied, raising an eyebrow and lowered the muffin.

"I... uh, I have an Instagram account. Er, an art account. I haven't been posting on it all that much since the school year started. And... well..." He trailed off and pushed the tablet across the table. "I kinda... drew a picture of you. And I was wondering if I could post it, 'cause I'm really proud of it."

Lance stared at the tablet in front of him. It was a picture of him jumping. His left arm was behind and above him, his right out to the side. His torso was twisted so his hips faced the side of the picture and his shoulders faced the front. His right leg was straight and slightly behind him, and his left leg was bent at the knee. The background was very subtly the bi flag colors, almost entirely blue until it ombreed from blue to purple to pink at the bottom. There was a brighter blue haze around him, almost like an aura and Keith had added what looked like a large piece of white cloth attached to his wrists and ankles, so it appeared like it billowed out behind him. Add in the drawn-in sparkles and hearts in the background, it was gorgeous.

"Whoa," he muttered. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, go ahead. You can post it. Do you want my username? So you can tag me?" he asked, pushing the tablet back over to Keith.

Keith smiled and nodded. "Yeah, sure. Just give me your at and I'll tag you."

"'Kay. Uh, would you want my dance account or my general account? 'Cause I have, like, five times as many followers on my dance account that on my other one," he said, pulling out his phone.

"Whichever one you think is better." Keith finished sending the picture to his phone and preparing it to post just as Lance slid his phone across the table, open to his Instagram. He grinned and peeked up at Lance, who was taking another bite of his muffin. Chuckling, he snapped a quick picture of the other boy, typed up the caption, posted the drawing and the picture, and handed Lance back his phone.

Thirty seconds later, Lance got an alert from Instagram.

 **_@KDraws_ ** _tagged you in a post.  
_ _On a date with the beautiful **@sharpshooter_dances** today, who I drew a picture of earlier this week. Sorry for the short hiatus! High school is a dick._

Keith watched Lance stare at the notification in shock, biting his lip. "Too much?" he asked, nervously. He didn't even think it was all that much.

Slowly, Lance looked up from his phone, shaking his head. "No, definitely not. I... I like the caption. Just. _You're KDraws?!_ One of the most popular artists on Instagram? Damn, I thought he was at least in college."

Oh. Well, that wasn't as bad as he thought. "Yeah? So what? Shiro helped me start posting a few years ago, said he'd rather I share my art like that than let it just collect dust in the closet. We didn't expect I'd get that much of a following," he said, shrugging, "And you have a pretty big following too, 'Sharpshooter'." He rolled his eyes and glanced down at his phone, seeing the post was already gaining likes. And jumped to his feet when he realized the time. "Crap, it's eleven forty-five. We should get going if we want to catch _Rise of Skywalker."_

Lance huffed and stood as well, wolfing down the last bits of his muffin. "Fine, but we are talking about this when we get back to school."

Keith rolled his eyes again and threw his bag over his shoulder, leading the other out of the building.

They never did make it to the movie.

One their way down the street to the theater, they saw a woman scream and point up to the sky. Frowning, they followed her finger.

And saw five human-like figures hovering in the air.

Five figures that looked strangely familiar.

"Lotor," Lance and Keith both hissed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I totally didn't forget the _Rise of Skywalker_ came out in December rather than September. Guess this is a year-round school rather than a normal school. Oh well.
> 
> The picture that Keith drew for Lance is inspired by [this](https://images.app.goo.gl/5s7AQqHWDHvnc7SU8) image of Ulrik Birkkjaer. At least the pose is


	10. A/N: Explanation

** _SO_ **

Academy of Geminis is not finished, I promise. Well, not per say. Just kind of... on hiatus? But also this section is finished? 'Cause I'm pretty sure I'm gonna split up the story into three sections. ANYWAY, I decided to do this for a few reasons:

  1. It gives me time to collect my thoughts, gather my bearings, all that shit and get ready for the next section. Did I mention I have no real clue what's really gonna happen next? Like, seriously. I _only_ planned up to this point in my initial idea. Whoops. Maybe should've waited until I had more but... here we are. Too late for that.
  2. It gives me time to work on other projects I've been meaning to do. The commissioned work from my friend, the ending The Truth Will Come Out, probably more of my RotBTFD Voltron AU, as well as a reposting of a friend of mine's story will all hopefully happen during this break.
  3. It gives Akiryuu62 and me time to work on designing the superhero outfits. We have one in progress and a few vague ideas for the rest, but not a lot, so that'll be part of planning for the next part.



** _SO_ **

I hope you're enjoying the story so far, I promise it is not done, and there will be more to it.

Oh, and Happy belated Single Awareness Day! 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖


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